This invention relates to a clip for attaching a fan to a heat dissipating heat sink.
Many semiconductor devices generate heat during operation which must be dissipated to avoid damage to the device. Some such devices have power-handling limitations which are largely determined by their ability to expel internally-generated heat and thereby avoid general or localized thermal degradations or failures within them.
In some semiconductor devices, the internally-generated heat is dissipated sufficiently by the enclosure, header or leads of the device. In many semiconductor devices, however, it is necessary to aid the dissipation of internally-generated heat by the use of heat sinks. A wide variety of heat sink designs have been employed for dissipation of internally-generated heat from electronic device packages which house semiconductor devices. For the purposes of the present invention, a heat sink is a body of metal or like material which is placed in contact with an electronic device package for transferring internally-generated heat from the semiconductor device contained in the electronic device package and for rapid dissipation of the internally-generated heat to the atmosphere by conduction, convection and/or radiation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,331--Hinshaw shows a widely used heat sink commonly referred to as a pin fin heat sink. The heat sink has rows and columns of upstanding parallel fins. The heat sinks are formed by first extruding rows of upstanding fins and then cross-cutting the fins to form rows and columns of pin fins.
These devices are frequently adequate to cool electronic devices by themselves. However, in many applications, it is desirable to add a fan which blows cooling air over the fins of the heat sink. The prior art technique of securing a fan to heat sink is by inserting a screw, or like fastener, through the mounting holes of the fan into the space between upstanding pin fins. This is not satisfactory, because often a space between pin fins does not line up with all of the mounting holes on the fan. The clip of the present invention obviates this problem.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a clip which makes the assembly of the fan to a heat sink much easier.